Nolan Finley

Budget cuts will bruise all backs

We don't seem to get what $1.7 billion means in the context of a $7 billion budget. Or how large a piece $350 million is of $1.5 billion. Or what a big hole a missing $259 million leaves in a $1.2 billion pot.

These are the deficits the state of Michigan, city of Detroit and Detroit Public Schools, respectively, are trying to erase. The shortfalls range from one-quarter to one-third of their general funds. What that means, in the simplest terms, is everybody gets hurt.

It's obvious that so much spending can't be eliminated without affecting services.

And yet all we hear as service cuts are floated is moaning and wailing about the amount of hardship they'll cause. No doubt. And no choice.

It's not about balancing the budget on the backs of kids, or balancing the budget on the backs of the poor, or balancing the budget on the backs of public workers. It's about balancing the budget. Period. Everyone's back will be bruised.

Governments in Michigan and the people they serve have been living in almost universal denial about what it means to be a state in relentless decline. We've pretended we can have it all without sacrifice and without change.

This fall, reality will force us to face it.

We can't have programs to nurture preschoolers and give public school teachers health insurance packages that cost $6,000 more a year than the national average.

We can't have a full cadre of state troopers on the highways and maintain an equal-sized force retired to the woods of northern Michigan drawing state pensions for 30 years.

We can't have a comprehensive bus schedule and give city workers 45 days off a year, along with taxpayer-provided Viagra to make sure they don't get bored with all that free time.

It's either/or. Even with federal stimulus dough to caulk the budgets, there will be major gaps between revenues and what's needed to maintain the status quo.

We finally have to set our priorities, to decide whether government will work for the benefit of its citizens or continue to fatten public employees.

Unless we turn again to tax hikes. That's the direction toward which Gov. Jennifer Granholm, public employee unions and the various interest groups at risk of losing big if the budgets get cut are pushing us toward. The tax increase advocates have a stake in driving the process to the deadlines, leaving as little time as possible for the more complex job of restructuring.

But taxpayers shouldn't be bullied. They should remember 2007, when a 20 percent state tax hike was forced through on the promise it would be an "investment" in maintaining Michigan's quality of life.

That turned out to be a Mad-off-sized con. The money disappeared, and services continue to deteriorate.

Getting out of this "Groundhog Day" horror show once and for all means accepting the fact that it's going to hurt.

But when it's done, when we've made the hard choices and taken the pain, we'll be in better shape to begin the rebuilding.

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. nfinley@detnews.com or (313) 222-2064. Watch him at 8:30 p.m. Fridays on "Am I Right?" on Detroit Public TV, Channel 56.